Seating furniture made of synthetic material

ABSTRACT

THE PRESENT SEATING FURNITURE COMPRISES SEAT AND REST MEANS WHICH ARE SUPPORTED BY A CHANNEL THE OPEN FACE OF WHICH FACES REARWARDLY AND THE WALLS OF WHICH ARE INCLINED INWARDLY AND DOWNWARDLY SO THAT THE CHANNEL CROSSSECTION DECREASES IN SIZE FROM THE SEAT MEANS DOWN TO SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL STANDING MEANS INTO WHICH THE CHANNEL WALLS EXTEND. THE ENTIRE FURNITURE IS PREFERABLY A ONE-PIECE, STACKABLE MOLDED STRUCTURE.

Feb. 9, 1971 LOHMEYER 3,561,818

SEATING FURNITURE MADE OF SYNTHETIC MATERIAL Filed Oct. 2, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 1

Feb. 9, 1971 I H. LOHMEYER 3,561,813

I SEATING FURNITURE MADE OF SYNTHETIC MATERIAL Filed Oct. 2, 1968 2'SheetsSheet 2 Fig. 2

United States Patent 3,561,818 SEATING FURNITURE MADE OF SYNTHETIC MATERIAL Hartmut Lohmeyer, 189 Schleissheimerstrasse, 8 Munich 13, Germany Filed Oct. 2, 1968, Ser. No. 764,499 Claims priority, application Germany, Oct. 5, 1967, P 16 54 305.8 Int. Cl. A47c 3/04 U.S. Cl. 297-239 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to seating furniture made of synthetic material, more specifically, one-piece, moldable seating furniture which are stackable one on top of the other, such as arm chairs and easy chairs.

It is known to manufacture seating furniture in one piece of synthetic material. When the costs for dies and equipment are disregarded, it would be possible, at least theoretically, to imitate by using synthetic material nearly all prior art methods of construction. However, so far only two basic types of single piece stackable chairs have become known in which an attempt has been made to find a shape which is acceptable with regard to functional, material and esthetic requirements and which shape is suitable for an inexpensive, industrial manufacturing process.

The features of the above two basic types will now briefly be described to show the drawbacks and thus demonstrate the objects of the invention and the means for attaining such objects according to the invention.

A type of chair known in several variants basically comprises the conventional shapes of a chair with four legs, however, the seat, back rest, frame and legs are formed as a walled single piece, whereby such seat, back rest, frame and legs are provided with profiles in many ways. For economic reasons this chair type, just as known seating trays and seating bowls, must also be produced on conventional presses which exert molding pressure in but one direction because the production rates to be expected in the manufacture of seating furniture will not make it profitable to incur the extraordinarily high costs for tools and machinery required for a production em ploying injection molding techniques or power presses which provide molding pressure in two or more directions. If this type of chair is pressure molded substantial manufacturing or functional problems are encountered because, regardless of the direction of the molding pressure, there will in any event be several surfaces of the chair which extend substantially in parallel to the direction of pressure. This applies especially to the legs which are statically stressed the most. This fact causes an insufficient material flow in the legs. As a result, stability is lacking and reject quotas are high. If all four legs were to be sufiiciently tilted relative to the direction of pressure, the chair would require a large flour area which is not feasible for practical reasons since people might stumble over such legs.

The above drawbacks are even increased where an arm rest is provided because then, to give the legs a sufii- 3,561,818 Patented Feb. 9, 1971 cient tilt, they should extend from a height corresponding to that of the arm rests. Besides, with this type of construction it is not possible to provide vertical and parallel side surfaces as are required, for example, for row type chairs which are to be stackable. In any event, this type of construction requires a substantial amount of material to provide the necessary stability, especially for the legs.

The second conventional type of chair partially avoids the just mentioned drawbacks of a chair having four legs by providing a supporting body of conical shape underneath of the seat. Such supporting body has in its lower portion a horizontal cross-section resembling a U-shape which opens forwardly. All walls of the supporting body extend from such forwardly opening U-shape to the front edge of the seat whereby the angled structure between the seat proper and the supporting body is made sufficiently strong by properly slanting and curving the sidewalls of the supporting body.

With regard to the production techniques and material considerations this type of construction is more logical than the type described above since the unitary, curved wall structure of the supporting body corresponds more to the characteristics of the material and because all sur faces of the chair are sufiiciently slanted relative to the direction of molding pressure. However, substantial functional drawbacks are to be noticed.

In order to achieve a suificient slanting of the wall surfaces of the conically shaped supporting body relative to the direction of molding pressure, it is necessary that the U-shaped base line in touch with the floor and opening forwardly, extends rather pointedly to the rear. This causes the danger that upon sitting down the chair might tip over sideways and rearwardly unless such base line extends rearwardly to an extraordinary extent which increases the danger of tripping for those passing behind the chair. These features make the chair unsuitable or even useless for many purposes especially in restaurants and where seatings are arranged in rows.

If the above structural principles are to be employed it is hard to construct an easy chair which has a seat that is even more slanted than the seat of an ordinary chair and which has a lower height between the seat and the floor. Due to these features the just mentioned drawbacks would become intolerable. In addition, the advantage of the somewhat sufficient slanting of the walls of the supporting body relative to the direction of molding pressure disappears because the angle between the seat and the supporting body becomes too pointed.

The seating structure just described thus requires unusually large dimensions in longitudinal and cross direc tion. Hence such structure cannot be manufactured as a model having economical dimensions as is required, for example, for restaurant chairs. Besides, the supporting body requires a substantial amount of material.

In view of the above it is the main object of the invention to construct a seating furniture which may be produced as an integral structure by mass production techniques, for example, by injection molding or pressure molding while simultaneously having sturdy features without requiring large dimensions nor uneconomical quantities of material.

Another object is to construct a seating furniture which will not easily be unbalanced when sitting down although the dimensions of such structure are rather small or economical as compared to prior art structures.

A still further object of the invention is to construct a seating furniture with such arrangement of its surfaces relative to each other that a mutual stiffening of such surfaces will be accomplished.

Yet another object is to arrange the surfaces of the seating furniture in such a manner that they will slant at 3 a substantial angle relative to the direction of molding pressure.

Yet another object is to remove the just described drawbacks.

According to the invention the above objects have been achieved in a seating furniture having a seating bowl or tub arranged above a walled-supporting body in that the supporting body has a horizontal cross-section especially of U-shape the open side of Which faces rearwardly whereby the front and side surfaces or walls of the supporting body are connected to the front edge and side edge of the seating bowl or tub and whereby the outer surfaces bounding the supporting body slant downwardly and inwardly on all sides and which surfaces extend laterally and forwardly near the floor in order to form a horizontal standing surface.

The seating furniture according to the invention comprises uninterrupted wall surfaces curved in space which stiffen each other and which form a large angle relative to the direction of molding pressure so that no difiiculties arise in the press molding. The standing surface or means is so constructed that any tipping over in any direction is avoided while simultaneously neither hindering the user nor passers-by.

Another advantage of the standing surface is seen in that it avoids impressions in any soft floor covering. It is also an advantage that the connection according to the invention between the seat member and the supporting body avoids the dangers of a bending strain in the area of the junction between the seat member and the supporting body so that any elastic flexing, bending, cracking or buckling does not occur in this area.

Due to the fact that the walls of the seat member and the walls of the supporting body merge with each other over a large area the forces occurring when the furniture is used, are so evenly distributed that a very low material strength is required. The horizontal cross-section of the supporting body need not necessarily be U-shaped but may have a curved shape, or a trapezoidal shape, or it may be V-shaped. In any event the inwardly slanting surfaces of the supporting body provide sufficient free space for the legs of a seated person.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood it will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side-rear view of a simple chair with a rearwardly open, supporting channel member having a U-shaped cross-section;

FIG. 2 shows a front view of a chair with arm rests and a rearwardly open, supporting channel member having a curved or substantially U-shaped cross-section, and

FIG. 3 illustrates a view similar to FIG. 1 wherein the rearwardly open channel has a substantially V-shaped cross-section.

FIG. 1 shows a stackable chair constructed according to the invention and having a trapezoidal floor plan or cross-section as well as economic dimensions especially with regard to the surface of its horizontal standing means. The perspective view depicts the chair from the side and the rear at an oblique angle. Such chairs are used, for example, in coffee houses or similar places.

A supporting body having curved surfaces is connected to a seat tray or bowl 1 constructed in a known manner. The seat bowl is bounded at its front and sides by a trapezoidal outline 2. The horizontal cross-section of the supporting body corresponds substantially to the trapezoidal shape of the seat member. These horizontal cross-sections shift rearwardly at an angle while simultaneously diminishing the dimensions from the upper end to the lower end of the supporting body whereby a channel is formed having about the shape of a somewhat skewed half of a funnel 3. The channel has an open face facing rearwardly. The lower end of the channel extends into standing means or surfaces 4 the size of which is limited by the stability requirements.

The lower rear edges of the channel or half funnel 3 end about four to six inches inwardly of a point where these edges should end for achieving a sufficient stability against tipping over. Therefore, the standing surfaces 4 are provided with an extension 5 which extends rearwardly to a point 6 whereby the rear edge forms a strengthening member 7 which is bent upwardly and which assures a sufficient stiffness.

FIG. 2 shows a stackable easy or arm chair according to the invention, having an arm rest as well as a back rest whereby the seat and the back rest are tilted more than in an ordinary chair. The FIG. 2 depicts a perspective, oblique front view. The seat, the back rest, and arm rests are constructed in a known manner as a bucket 8 having heavily curved shapes. A rounded supporting body 10 is connected to a well-rounded front edge 9 of the seat, said body 10 forming a skewed half funnel or channel the shape of which corresponds in principle to that of FIG. 1. The horizontal standing surface 11 extends outwardly and has a substantial rearward extension 12 which is stiffened by an angled strengthening member 13. This construction takes care of any danger of tipping over which might otherwise result due to the substantial slanting of the seat and back rest.

The chair of FIG. 3 with its rearwardly open channel 15 of substantially V-shaped cross-section, has a seat 16 which is also V-shaped. The interconnection between the upper end of the channel and the seat extends along the side and front edges of the seat which define the V-shape.

While the invention has been described with reference to specific examples, it is to be understood that it comprises all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a stackable seating furniture made of synthetic material having seat means and rest means forming a unitary member and a supporting base in the form of a channel having an upper end integral with said unitary member, said channel further having a lower end, as well as walls forming an open channel face, the improvement comprising: an interconnection between said unitary member and said upper channel end along a peripheral edge of said seat means, standing means integral with said channel along its lower end and extending outwardly from such lower channel end, said open channel face facing rearwardly relative to the unitary member, said channel walls being inclined downwardly and inwardly from the upper channel end to the lower channel end so that the channel has a horizontal cross-section the dimension of which decreases from the upper end to the lower end of the channel where it is connected to the standing means.

2. The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein the channel has a U-shaped horizontal cross-section the open side of which faces rearwardly.

3. The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein the channel has a curved cross-section the open side of which faces rearwardly.

4. The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein the channel has a V-shaped cross-section the open side of which faces rearwardly.

5. The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein said channel has front and side walls forming a U-shaped cross-section the open side of which faces rearwardly.

6. The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein said walls of the channel are curved.

7 The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein said channel has side walls and said standing means comprise extension means, one of which extends rearwardly from each side wall beyond the rear edge thereof.

8. The seating furniture according to claim 7, further comprising stiffening means connected between said extension means of the standing means and said side walls.

9. The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein said rest means comprise a back rest, and wherein the unitary member and the supporting means form an integral, molded, stackable structure.

10, The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein said rest means comprise arm rests and a back rest and wherein the unitary member and the supporting means form an integral, molded, stackable structure.

11. The seating furniture according to claim 1, wherein said interconnection between said unitary member and the upper channel end extends substantially along a front edge of said seat means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 70,698 11/ 1867 Cole 297445 2,967,565 1/1961 Schultz 297239 3,069,204 12/ 1962 Vesterholt et al. 297-445X 6 12/1965 Woodard 297445X 12/1965 Platner 108150X 11/1966 Beckman et a1 297-239X 8/1969 Klausen 297239 FOREIGN PATENTS 10/1948 Australia 297-239 8/1952 Australia 297-239 7/ 1966 Australia 297-239 7/ 1940 Great Britain 297239 11/ 1952 Great Britain 297--239 US. Cl. X.R. 

